


slow dancing still goes

by serpentineshadows



Category: One Piece
Genre: Gen, Sabo struggling with his devil fruit, descriptions of drowning, i know i said that for my last story but it's for real this time: the most unbeta'd of unbetas, no beta we die like men, no?? plot??
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-19
Updated: 2018-10-19
Packaged: 2019-08-04 06:53:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 889
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16341932
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/serpentineshadows/pseuds/serpentineshadows
Summary: After Sabo obtains Ace's Devil Fruit, things change. He doesn't really handle it well. (Set after Dressrosa, not necessarily canon compliant).





	slow dancing still goes

**Author's Note:**

> yo, "SLOW DANCING IN THE DARK" is a good song. that's the only reason i wrote this. 
> 
> college drains out my creativity and free time via my sweat, so that pirates trying themselves for piracy thing is slow going. i only have the set up written out. 
> 
> i have a bad habit of distracting myself from my current projects, so here  
> take this low effort sabo work

The first shower Sabo has after obtaining Ace’s devil fruit is surprisingly uneventful. Maybe he feels a little more sluggish than he normally does and vulnerable, but then again…there’s always that itch running under the surface of his skin when he showers, constantly on alert.

(So maybe he manages to start a small fire in the shower, but that’s okay. He’s just not used to handling a devil fruit yet, and besides, like a fire in the _shower_ of all places would do any harm.)

 

Unfortunately, the first time Sabo falls overboard after obtaining Ace’s devil fruit goes much, much worse.

Falling into the sea is bad enough, reminds Sabo of an excruciating pain spreading across his face, the water filling his mouth and lungs, the sheer panic. The thing is, falling into the sea as a devil fruit user is infinitely worse.

Sabo knows how to swim, and yet he _can’t_. His limbs are too sluggish, his body won’t obey him. The precious oxygen in his lungs, leaving without his consent; the sea all around him, dragging him deeper; and the brilliant blue sky above him, disappearing. His heart’s beating a million times a minute, the only part of his body that’s actively working when the sea water’s stopping all of his movement, lapping up the tiny tears forming in his eyes and whisking them away.

Something wraps around Sabo’s midsection, but he can’t do anything about it, a ragdoll left to the world’s whims. He can’t even see what’s going on around him, the water in his eyes blinding him.

When Sabo’s finally on something solid again, free from the sea’s oppressive hold on him, he opens his eyes to Hack and Koala’s concerned faces. Hack is dripping water onto the deck while Koala’s arms are crossed, her lips pursed, acting like she would if she was about to scold Sabo for doing something stupid. There’s something in her expression though that tells Sabo of the depth of her worry, how much him falling into the water and not being able to just _swim_ scared her.

Because it’s different now. Being a devil fruit user is permanent, not some little hobby that’s caught Sabo’s fancy for the time being. It’s permanent, just like the scar on his face is, just like Ace’s death is. Now, the sea and seastone are his weaknesses, too, not just his enemies’, and he randomly bursts into flame.

He’s not in control right now, which means he can’t even protect what’s important to him as he is now. Like this, Sabo can’t bring himself to face Luffy, so he stays away, as he did for the past two years, ignoring his selfish desires.

 

After the incident, Sabo’s cleanliness takes a turn in the wrong direction. He can’t even bring himself to wash his hands that often because he feels like the water’s leeching his strength with each droplet. Sabo tells himself it’s probably all in his head, it’s stupid to be scared of _water_ of all things when he lives his life on the sea, but:

“Shower. _Now_ ,” Koala demands the moment he walks into the meeting room.

Sabo acts offended, saying, “I don’t smell _that_ bad,” even though he knows he does. In the end, Sabo finds himself ushered into one of the nicer bathrooms on base. Half of Sabo expects to be locked into a shower stall and lectured on his failure to take care of himself, and that half ends up being proved wrong.

He _does_ get locked into a shower stall, but Koala doesn’t say anything after making sure he’s turned the water on. All he can hear is his breathing getting faster and faster, the water splashing all around him, and then he can’t hear anything but white noise because the water’s leeching his energy away, getting into his eyes and his lungs, so that he’s powerless, so that he can’t even _think_ properly.

“I understand, you know,” Koala says, her voice breaking through the fog that’s permeating Sabo’s mind. It grounds him, helps him focus and realize that no, the water is _not_ in his lungs and he should close his eyes to keep the water out of them. “Being so…afraid. Running away doesn’t help, Sabo. It’ll take time, but you’ll get there faster when you stop running away.”

“I know,” Sabo whispers, and Koala doesn’t respond for so long that he’s starting to think she didn’t hear him.

But then she says, “I know that you know. I’m just reminding you because you do the stupidest things sometimes, like forgetting what you already know.”

Sabo laughs wryly, forgetting momentarily that the shower's still going. He ends up inhaling a bunch of water and choking. Coughing, Sabo falls to the floor of the stall, prompting Koala to ask, "Wait, what's wrong?"

"Choked on water," he coughs out and starts laughing at the ridiculousness of the situation, maybe a little hysterically.

"The stupidest things," he hears Koala mutter to herself. "Was trying to be serious here, you know."

"Sorry, can't help it," Sabo says as he picks himself off the floor.

The rest of the shower is uneventful, the fear that hung over him like a specter gone for the time being. _That's progress, for now,_ Sabo tells himself. _I'll be better in the future._

**Author's Note:**

> Here's a lil extra that I thought didn't fit in w/ the rest:  
> It takes a while for Sabo to fully master his powers, but he gets there and he runs into Luffy while he’s at it. 
> 
> “So cool! Your power’s so awesome!” Luffy exclaims, like they’re kids all over again, like he isn’t one of the strongest pirates of his generation, like it’s actually Sabo’s power.
> 
> And that’s when Sabo starts to accept that the devil fruit is his power, even if it was Ace’s before.


End file.
